For any business looking to grow and succeed, marketing tends to be a significant investment. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends an annual revenue spend of 7% to 8%, and some industry commentators recommend a marketing spend of up to 20%.

We get asked the marketing budget question a lot.

It’s understandable.

Did you know that about 3.4 billion customers in every market are on social media? Think about the world's population of 7.7 billion and envision the number of buyers you lose if your business lacks a strong social media presence (assuming of course, your business is based upon volume).

Thanks to COVID, online shopping is taking the world by storm. So, businesses focusing on their brick-and-mortar setups are missing out on the unmatched benefits of digital marketing. As more and more brands are strengthening their digital presence, more customers are preferring to buy on the internet.

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

~Lord Acton

I’ve had chills these past few weeks watching Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Amazon playing God about which businesses can play on their platforms.

Interestingly, all these platforms were happy to receive the millions of dollars in political party advertising. Yet now that the spend-fest is over, they can delete a social media empire that has millions of followers and took millions of dollars to build in just a nanosecond.

Poof.

“Hope is not a strategy.”

Vince Lombardi”

Having a marketing plan for your business that’s consistently implemented every month - is about as important as having oxygen tanks strapped to your back on a deep-sea dive.

A marketing plan is your game-plan.

It’s the only way to ensure that your organization’s marketing is on the offensive instead of seat-of-the-pants reactive. And it’s the battle-plan for getting your goals achieved.

But our Marketing Plan is so much more. It’s actually a …

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I was fourteen years old, the head of the math department (who also happened to be my Mother’s best friend and the deputy vice-principal of my school), took my Mom aside and told her that I was going to fail high school math.

Admittedly it was true that math was my least favorite subject. It was also true that my otherwise …